Eurovision Song Contest 2017
The Eurovision Song Contest 2017 was the 62nd annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Kiev, Ukraine following Jamala's win in the 2016 contest with the song "1944". It was won by Salvador Sobral of Portugal with the song "Amar pelos dois". This gave the country its first ever victory in its 53 years of participation. National Final = France = France participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. The French broadcaster France Télévisions, in collaboration with their television channel France 2, internally selected the song "Requiem" performed by Alma and written by Nazim Khaled to be the French entry for the 2017 contest in Kiev, Ukraine. Background Prior to the 2017 Contest, France had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-nine times since its debut as one of seven countries to take part in 1956.1 France first won the contest in 1958 with "Dors, mon amour" performed by André Claveau. In the 1960s, they won three times, with "Tom Pillibi" performed by Jacqueline Boyer in 1960, "Un premier amour" performed by Isabelle Aubret in 1962 and "Un jour, un enfant" performed by Frida Boccara, who won in 1969 in a four-way tie with the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. France's fifth victory came in 1977, when Marie Myriam won with the song "L'oiseau et l'enfant". France have also finished second four times, with Paule Desjardins in 1957, Catherine Ferry in 1976, Joëlle Ursull in 1990 and Amina in 1991, who lost out to Sweden's Carola in a tie-break. Since 2000, France has managed to place within the top ten four times, with Natasha St-Pier finishing fourth in 2001, Sandrine François finishing fifth in 2002, Patricia Kaas finishing eighth in 2009 and Amir finishing sixth in 2016. The French national broadcaster, France Télévisions, broadcasts the event within France and delegates the selection of the nation's entry to the television channel France 2.2 The French broadcaster had used both national finals and internal selection to choose the French entry in the past. The 2014 French entry was selected via a national final that featured three competing acts. Since 2015, the broadcaster has opted to internally select the French entry, a procedure that was continued in order to select the 2017 entry.3 Before Eurovision On 4 November 2017, France 3 announced that it would organise a national final in order to select the French entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017.2 This marked a return to a national final selection procedure by the French broadcaster, opting instead for internal selections in the years between. In early October 2017, France 3 initiated a casting call for interested artists to submit songs with the criteria that the majority of the lyrics of the submitted song be in Frenchand that instrumental pieces that extensively lacked vocals would not be accepted.34 The deadline for submissions concluded on 24 November 2017.4 France 3, in cooperation with France Bleu, launched a competition open to the public where entrants were required to successfully answer three questions related to the Eurovision Song Contest in order to enter a draw. The winner had the opportunity to be part of the selection committee for the national final.2 On 26 November 2013, the section committee consisting of music industry professionals: Laurent Bentata, Bruno Berberes, Laura Cès, Mary De Vivo, Valérie Michelin and Franck Saurat; representatives of France Télévisions: Thierry Langlois, Yann Chapellon, Marie Claire Mezerette, Frédéric Valencak and Olivier Daube; a representative of France Bleu: Dominique Bourron; a Eurovision fan: Farouk Vallette; and the winner of the public competition, Morgane Buret, convened to select three candidates for the national final.5 The fourteen members completed the selection in two rounds of voting: the first round selected the top five songs after a blind audio listening of the submissions and the second round selected the top three.5 The candidates presented their entries in a special edition of the French television program Les chansons d'abord on 26 January 2014, which was hosted by 2001 French Eurovision entrant Natasha St-Pier. Following the presentation, the public had the opportunity to vote for their favourite entry between 26 January 2017 and 23 February 2017. During this time, the entries were given increased exposure and rotation on France 3 and France Bleu. The votes from the public were combined with the votes of a jury panel in order to select the winning artist and song. The result of the national final was announced on Les chansons d'abord on 2 March 2017.6 Promotionedit Alma made appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Requiem" as the French Eurovision entry. On 25 February 2017, Alma performed "Requiem" at the Ukrainian national final.6 She also participated at the London Eurovision Party at the Café de Paris in London, United Kingdom; the Eurovision in Concert at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands; Israel Calling at the Ha'teatron in Tel Aviv, and the Eurovision-Spain Pre-Party at the La Riviera venue in Madrid, Spain.7 Location The contest took place in the International Exhibition Centre in Kiev. It has a capacity of approximately 11,000 attendees and is the largest exhibition centre in the city. Located in the western part of the Livoberezhna microdistrict, the centre was opened in October 2002, and its head since its construction was Anatoly Tkachenko. Bidding Phase Participants = Participants Semii Final 1 Eighteen countries participated in the first semi-final. Italy, Spain and United Kingdom voted in this semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final. Semi Final 2 Eighteen countries participated in the second semi-final. France, Germany and Ukraine voted in this semi-final. Russia was originally planned to perform in position three, but withdrew from the contest after the artist they selected was banned from entering Ukraine]], resulting in countries originally planned to perform fourth and later, to do so one place earlier. The highlighted countries qualified for the final. Final Twenty-six countries participated in the final, with all 42 participating countries eligible to vote. The running order for the final was revealed after the second semi-final qualifiers' press conference on 11 May. Category:Eurovision Song Contests Category:Contests in Ukraine Category:Eurovision Song Contest 2017 Category:Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest